Go inside the State Heritage-listed art deco house on Prospect Rd

It’s an art deco masterpiece, built in 1938, and one of SA’s best examples of 1940s Hollywood-era glitz and glam. Look inside the home designed by the architect behind the Capri Theatre.

Renato Castello

The AdvertiserDecember 10, 20185:31pm

Art Deco House

Art Deco House

Stepping into David and Alison O’Loughlin’s house takes visitors back to Hollywood’s Golden Age — a period of glitz, glamour and excess.

The Prospect property, built in 1938 and state heritage-listed in 2010, is considered among the state’s best examples of modernist architecture, or later known as art deco.

The terrazzo flooring in the portico takes visitors into compact two-storey house with layers of detail, texture, luxury and repeated geometry designed for, and by, architect Chris Smith, whose works include the former synagogue in Synagogue Place, off Rundle St, the Capri Theatre, and Port Adelaide Enfield Town Hall.

David and Alison O’Loughlin in the lounge room of their 1930 art deco Prospect house which they bought in 2005 and was state heritage-listed in 2010. The plasterwork above the fireplace matches that found in the Capri theatre, designed by architect Chris Smith. Picture: Tricia WatkinsonSource:News Corp Australia

Ornate ceilings take centre stage in each room supported by curved lines of the original built-in timber furniture, such as bedside tables, wall sconces, a kitchen booth seat and fireplaces.

Mr O’Loughlin marvels that even the original bathroom, a dizzying mix of terrazzo flooring and four different styles of tile, has survived six owners.

“It looks like a big house but it’s an incredibly functional design, there are no corridors for instance, it works really well,” he said, adding he and his wife were the only bidders for the property at auction.

“It is a unique moment in time and a pretty unique house in that this is an architect’s own home who was an expert practitioner in art deco.

“We are incredibly lucky and blessed to be custodians of such a fabulous piece of South Australian history.”

He said the house epitomised an era of “wealth, prosperity and people screaming for modernity” where people were trying to “shrug off the shroud of Victoriana and Edwardiana”.

Mr O’Loughlin is convener of the Adelaide chapter of the Art Deco & Modernism Society, which has made a submission into an ongoing parliamentary inquiry into heritage management citing the “relatively low level” of 20th century items with heritage protection compared to the 19th century.

“What people don’t dwell upon is that 20th century is last century, this stuff (architecture) is disappearing before our eyes,” he said.

“We have to get hold of the early art nouveau, art deco, the modernist, the 70s and somebody at some stage will want to preserve even some 80s and 90s stuff, which is hard to imagine now.”

Alison and David O'Loughlin outside their Prospect house, on Prospect Rd, which was designed by architect Chris Smith as his home and office. Smith designed dozens of theatres and civil buildings including the Capri Theatre. Picture: Tricia WatkinsonSource:News Corp Australia

He argued that examples of 1960s and 70s cream-bricked homes, favoured by Italian migrants who “saved every cent” to build their dream home, should be preserved as a “tangible record of that story of achievement”.

“People would be horrified you would want to preserve something like that, but that’s a really incredibly important part of South Australia’s history,” he said.

“We’d still be eating mashed potatoes and chops and diced carrots if it wasn’t for those migrants who introduced us to the fabulous food of southern Europe, buildings are a fabulous way to help tell a story.

“I think if you want to tell South Australia’s story accurately and tell it with a sense of celebration, our submission to the heritage inquiry said is you need to make sure you have a balance of the record all the way through.

“I don’t have any issue with saying a building that was finished and opened yesterday, if it was a remarkable part of the state’s evolution you should think about making sure that’s got some protections in place.”

The Environment Department said of the 2300 places on the SA Heritage Register about 1800 were built in the 19th century.